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Justice League Unlimited
Summary The Justice League Unlimited (JLU), also known as the League of Heroes is a group in Second Life founded by Second Life residents "Kalel Venkman" and "Kara Timtam" on April 4th, 2006. The group began as a peace keeping organization, but branched out into general public service and fundraising for prominent charities. Noted for their use of comic book hero appearances such as Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, the group is believed to be the first of its kind known to operate a members-only information wiki. The Justice League is headquartered in the members-only sim called Justice Island but have sites open to the public in various other locations, most noteably its "Adventurers Club" in Steelhead Port Harbor and the League of Heroes Joseph Button Memorial Comm Summary The Justice League Unlimited (JLU), also known as the League of Heroes is a group in Second Life founded by Second Life residents "Kalel Venkman" and "Kara Timtam" on April 4th, 2006. The group began as a peace keeping organization, but branched out into general public service and fundraising for prominent charities. Noted for their use of comic book hero appearances such as Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, the group is believed to be the first of its kind known to operate a members-only information wiki. The Justice League is headquartered in the members-only sim called Justice Island but have sites open to the public in various other locations, most noteably its "Adventurers Club" in Steelhead Port Harbor and the League of Heroes Joseph Button Memorial Community Center in Taber across from the main entrance to the Ivory Tower of Prims It has also been resident of the sims: Explorers Rangeland, Isere, Verbier, Asimov Island and Kismat before moving to its current home. The Justice League Unlimited group logo was designed for the group by resident and ex-JLU member Netwonder Widget as a tribute to the official Justice League of America logo Peacekeeping & Charity Work The Justice League Unlimited patrols Second Life sandboxes and other public areas, reporting violations of the Second Life Terms of Service . In addition to this, the Justice League Unlimited also assists new Second Life residents, hosts estate manager security seminars, operates as security for resident-run events, and assists charity in Second Life through events such as Relay for Life (the American Cancer Society), Earth Week, Peace Week, Imagine Fest, and the Spina Bifida Awareness Foundation. Krypton Radio The League owns and operates Krypton Radio, a combination news site and internet radio station. The station provides round-the-clock programming for comic book and science fiction fans and furnish entertainment and technology news to their readers, but serves a sort of incubator for new upcoming talent as well. Krypton Radio often airs the work of previously unknown artists. Brainiac and the BrainiacWiki The Justice League Unlimited was arguably the first amongst peace keeping groups in SL to make use of a wiki to record almost daily notes on activities within the online service, and makes of a vast information storage and retrieval system called "Brainiac", named after the Superman villain by the same name, and for its equally extensive "BrainiacWiki". Brainiac and the BrainaicWiki are only accessible by Justice League Unlimited members, and are used for the purpose of storing information on suspected griefers, griefer groups, friendly contacts,friendly groups, chat logs, meeting logs, and people and groups of interest to the League. Use of these tools by the League are the usual focus of the League's detractors, and they are decried as a violation of the griefers' privacy, despite the fact that virtually all the information said wiki merely records information gathered online within the Second Life game service. BrainiacWiki Thefts The Justice League Unlimited has been the center of a number of controversies since its founding in 2006, largely centered around the JLU's use of its members-only BrainiacWiki, and its interactive Brainiac database. Their wiki has been stolen on three noteworthy occasions, once in 2007 via the exploit of an IE7 bug, once in 2010 via infiltration by a member of the Wrong Hands with strong ties to the Woodbury University group, and once in 2011 when illegal entry was gained via the use of one or more hacked Second Life accounts (itself a federal crime), again by the Wrong Hands. Each time stolen materials were widely distributed, though the pages and database from the most recent attack could not be verified as authentic. With each successive attack, members from the previous attack group reformed into new groups and launched a new attack, using the traditional "Anonymous" trick of changing group names to distance themselves from previous crimes or misdeeds. The League has also been targeted by several griefer organizations once in operation in Second Life, presumably due to repeated successful operations against these groups, most notably Woodbury University and the Patriotic Nigras, this, usually in response to the loss of sims and mass bans of these groups. So called "whistle-blowing" is more likely simply attempts at exacting revenge. It should be noted that the group in Second Life once known as Woodbury University has no known legitimate ties with real life institution. The Second Life group operated for years under the guise of being an educational group, but no classes in-world were ever held - its in-world reputation was deeply marred by its association with 4Chan, pornography and racism. Jurisdiction Disputes Some accuse the League of visiting private sims without permission from the owners and reporting violations, circumventing local ownership or authority. Record of specific incidents seems to be missing from public discussions, but the rumors still circulate. There are also rumors of collusion with administrators at Linden Lab. While employees of Linden Lab have received detailed information from the League at times, most of what appears to be favoritism may simply be the League's careful adherence to the letter of the Terms of Service; no League member has ever been banned or suspended while a member. Copyrights and Trademarks There has also been criticism over its use of copyrighted and trademarked DC and Marvel comic book characters and names for their avatars within Second Life. However, the respective owners of the intellectual property used by the Justice League Unlimited have made no comments or requests to cease and desist on this usage, and their Krypton Radio web site steers carefully clear of potential trademark and copyright issues. In addition, the League has plans to switch to completely custom characters, and rebrand itself the League of Heroes in order to eliminate copyright concerns. The radio station is also fully BMI/ASCAP licensed.